Columbia City Council Votes Against Property Tax Increase

COLUMBIA - The City Council unanimously voted against the proposed property tax initiative Monday night.

If the members had voted for the proposal it would have gone on this November's ballot. It would have been a twenty cent increase for every assessed one-hundred dollars.

Mayor Bob McDavid proposed the property tax increase earlier this month to fund the hiring of more police officers. On August 13, McDavid said on his Facebook page that he no longer supported the proposal.

This decision came after a meeting with the Columbia Police Officers' Association (CPOA).

"I'm not sure our meeting was the entire reason for the Mayor's change of heart," Dale Roberts, the Executive Director of the CPOA, said. "There had been a fair amount of negative reaction to the idea of a property tax."

Despite his backing off, McDavid was adamant about getting a plan worked out in the future.

"I am committed to trying to get this done," McDavid said. "There's a lot of ways to do this. But I think the city will get this done."

The City Council briefly discussed the possibility of looking at this issue again for the April ballot.